PRMT5 regulates ovarian follicle development by facilitating Wt1 translation

• Published in: eLife Vol. 10
• Main Authors: Chen, Min, Dong, Fangfang, Shen, Zhiming, Wu, Haowei, Cen, Changhuo, Cui, Xiuhong, Bao, Shilai, Gao, Fei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England eLife Science Publications, Ltd 27.08.2021; eLife Sciences Publications Ltd; eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
• Subjects: Age; Animals; Arginine; Blood proteins; Cell Biology; Cell differentiation; Cell lineage; Developmental Biology; Female; Follicles; Gene expression; Genetic translation; Granulosa cells; Histology; Infertility; Infertility, Female - genetics; IRES; Methylation; Mice; Mice, Knockout; Mice, Transgenic; mRNA; Oocytes; Ovarian Follicle - growth & development; Ovaries; ovary; Post-translation; PRMT5; Protein arginine methyltransferase; Protein-Arginine N-Methyltransferases - genetics; Protein-Arginine N-Methyltransferases - physiology; Proteins; RNA; Rodents; Steroidogenesis; Transferases; Translation; Wt1; WT1 Proteins - genetics; PRMT5; ovary; cell biology; IRES; Wt1; developmental biology; granulosa cells
• ISSN: 2050-084X; 2050-084X
• DOI: 10.7554/elife.68930

Protein arginine methyltransferase 5 ( ) is the major type II enzyme responsible for symmetric dimethylation of arginine. Here, we found that PRMT5 was expressed at high level in ovarian granulosa cells of growing follicles. Inactivation of in granulosa cells resulted in aberrant follicle development and female infertility. In knockout mice, follicle development was arrested with disorganized granulosa cells in which WT1 expression was dramatically reduced and the expression of steroidogenesis-related genes was significantly increased. The premature differentiated granulosa cells were detached from oocytes and follicle structure was disrupted. Mechanism studies revealed that expression was regulated by PRMT5 at the protein level. PRMT5 facilitated IRES-dependent translation of mRNA by methylating HnRNPA1. Moreover, the upregulation of steroidogenic genes in -deficient granulosa cells was repressed by overexpression. These results demonstrate that PRMT5 participates in granulosa cell lineage maintenance by inducing expression. Our study uncovers a new role of post-translational arginine methylation in granulosa cell differentiation and follicle development.